


The Faro Bunker

by Apollo_Offline



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Horizon: Zero Dawn Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:34:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27782317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Apollo_Offline/pseuds/Apollo_Offline
Summary: Post-Horizon: Zero Dawn, Aloy is exploring new ruins and learns more of what happened after the events in GAIA Prime.(Potential but unconfirmed possible spoilers of Horizon: Forbidden West, it's not out to play yet so I can't confirm.)
Kudos: 8





	The Faro Bunker

**Author's Note:**

> This is one of three prompts I submitted to Guerrilla. This story contains what I believe will end up being a spoiler for Horizon: Forbidden West. For those who haven't played HZD multiple times, I'm referring to information in the first hologram we see of Elisabet Sobeck.

“This looks like someone lived here? An old one by the look of it, everything is covered in dust and the air is stale.” Aloy murmurs to herself. She looks around the space and sees it’s perfectly preserved. No signs of nature, no holes in the walls, ceiling or floor, not even a dampness she’s come to expect in ruins of the old ones. There’s some sort of rug on the floor, stretching from all four corners of the room, as she walks across it, she can feel her feet sink into it as she walks across. Dust blooms upwards as she puts weight down, it almost feels like the rug like covering is disintegrating as she disturbs it.

To her left there is a section of space, a metal table and two metal chairs stand alone, datapoints strewn across the flat surface. Further into the room is some sort of ancient cooking space? It seems more like a strange storage area, compartments line the wall, handles evenly spaced between pieces of smooth metal. To her right is a large open space, a holo-base with a console in the center of it. A circular raised bedding, barely wide enough for a person to lay down on, surrounds most of the holo-base. It has a backing made of the same material and Aloy wonders if it will disintegrate if she so much as grazes her fingertips across it. On the other side of the room is an open doorway that leads further into the strangely untouched space.

“Alright, let’s see what these have to say.” She lifts her finger to her Focus and scans the multiple journal logs on the table. Title after title pops onto her focus, ‘ON SCHEDULE FOR COMPLETION’, ‘URGENT MESSAGE’, “PRIORITY: TED FARO’, ‘ADDITIONAL FUNDS REQUESTED’. “This is, a bunker for Ted Faro?” Aloy reads through the data, the bunker had been in the process of being built around the same time the Faro robots went rogue. Ted Faro had sent out an urgent message two days before his meeting with Elisabet Sobeck to finish this bunker as quickly as possible. The price for expediency, negotiable.

“He set this place up for himself. Ted Faro knew the world would end and he made sure he had his escape plan in motion. Even before he called Elisabet, the only person he knew would have a chance at fixing his mistake.” Aloy growls. Her fury for the man burning even brighter than before. “It’s been hundreds of years since he was alive and I’m still finding new reasons to hate him.” She turns away from the table, disgusted. She can see more logs of data over the edge of the raised bedding but ignores them for the moment, not sure she’d be able to stand reading them just yet.

Aloy stalks slowly across the space and passes through the open doorway, it leads into a short hallway with two closed doors on either side and another opened door in front of her. The four closed doors seemed to be locked, they won’t open upon her touch so she can only move further into the bunker. The hallway opens into one large room, a giant raised bedding dominating the center of the room, the bedding is rumpled, as if the person who had slept in it had just gotten up but didn’t return. There’s a closed door on the left, and on the right is another table, covered in datapoints, all haphazardly strewn across its surface, some it seems to have fallen to the floor. It’s possible they fell from precarious positions or someone pushed them off the edges as they searched for a particular one.

This bunker is eerie in a different way than the ruins of the old ones, it’s a place completely forgotten, untouched by people or nature. A place that someone walked away from and never came back. A space forgotten to time itself. It makes Aloy feel uneasy. Raising her hand to her Focus, she scans the thin pieces of machinery filled with data and information floods her focus. ‘WHAT DAY IS IT?’, ’THE RIGHT THING’, ‘IS THIS WHAT IT FEELS LIKE?’, ‘OMEGA CLEARANCE’, ‘LEAVING GAIA PRIME’, ’THIS ISN’T LIVING, ‘CAN’T CONTACT ELYSIUM’, ‘HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?’

“These are all from Ted, he recorded some of his time after GAIA Prime?” Aloy glances over them, all written logs. Some are directly after he killed the Alphas, justifying his actions. Others seem to be weeks and months after leaving GAIA Prime, the man slowly devolving into hysterics, no one to assuage his guilt but himself. “He may have spent the rest of his life alone. I don’t know if that would have been punishment enough.” She remarks angrily.

The huntress surveys the space and it occurs to her that she hasn’t seen a body. If Ted spent the rest of his days here and considering how encapsulated the bunker had been until Aloy broke down the door, he would have died in this bunker. Aloy eases her way out of the room, checking the closed doors in the hallway and her Focus confirming that the doors were locked by genetic signature. Only Ted Faro would be able to see what was behind these doors.

Making her way back into the first room, she surveys the holo-base and the circular bedding the scattered pieces of machinery that could possibly hold more information on what happened to Ted Faro. It’s a surprise when the first audio datapoint she scans comes back encrypted. The second and third are same, whatever is on these data-logs, she won’t be able to hear or read them.

“What reason would Ted have to encrypt these?” Aloy asks herself. Based on the information she’s been reading, Ted hadn’t been able to contact the remaining survivors at Elysium, he would have been completely and utterly alone. When she scans the fourth datapoint she gets notification from her Focus that it’s logged and available to listen to. “Destroy Protocol LightKeeper? This can’t be good.” She reads the label and a tendril of apprehension slithers into her gut, it’s cold and unrelenting as it settles. Pulling open the log, Aloy lets it play, listening intently.

“I know Elisabet set up protocol LightKeeper in the event of the original Alphas couldn’t finish their work in one lifetime.” Ted’s voice starts. He sounds exhausted, breath shaky and voice trembling. “But what she didn’t say was that she could also use those clones to manipulate GAIA’s systems when we’re dead and gone. It gives these clones power to…the power to end the world just like we did. It didn’t even occur to me when I left that…that tomb. I can’t let Elisabet bring GAIA back online, but getting to the closest auxiliary control or even GAIA Prime-” There’s a banging, it sounds like Ted is hitting something metallic repeatedly in the recording.

“Getting to either is practically impossible.” Ted continues after a pause. “If there was a way to control GAIA remotely, if I had access to GAIA’s primary controls from here…I could terminate the project, have Eluethia terminate the embryos to make sure Elisabet doesn’t get them.” There’s another loud clang of metal.

“But, leaving is too dangerous even now. Machines that have reserved the last of the resources have entered hibernation mode, waiting for the next life source it finds. They were built to conserve enough energy to last decades in hibernation mode, possibly even centuries if it took the Minerva subordinate function that long to crack the algorithm. I nearly killed myself getting here! Going back out there would be suicide.” Ted sighs heavily, pausing. “But maybe that would be better…than this.” The audio file ends and Aloy is astounded. There’s so much information packed into the small amount of time Ted spoke.

“He was, talking like Elisabet was alive. But that doesn’t make sense. Elisabet left GAIA Prime to save the facility from the swarm. I found her body at her family’s ranch, where she said she was going.” Aloy murmurs to herself. “Did Ted lose his mind? Did he actually think she was alive?” The redhead tries to download the rest of the files but most of the pile is encrypted. She sees a few come up as written logs but they all look to be more ramblings of a man sinking further into insanity. No mention of Elisabet in any of them.

“There must be a way to unlock these ‘encrypted’ files. I have to find out what Ted put on these logs.” Aloy sighs. She looks to the holo-base, studies the console before reaching out and pressing her hand against it. She barely has time to hope it’s not encrypted before it comes to life. The dark space is immersed in blue light as the last recording on the machine plays. A hologram replica of Ted flickers to life on the raised bed, he’s sitting on it, hunched as he pours over a log in his hands.

For a long second, nothing happens. There’s a beeping sound that startles the Ted hologram, his head shoots up he pauses again, almost as if he didn’t believe he had heard it. It sounded again and Ted set aside the machine in his hands, a hysterical sounding laugh came from the direction of the holo-base.

“It can’t be, someone, someone’s out there. They heard my message!” The male exclaims. He stands up and places a hand to the side of his face, accessing his focus. The holo-base hums to life and Aloy watches as the image of Dr. Sobeck pops into existence. She’s not wearing an environmental suit but plain clothes, her arms crossed over her chest and she’s glaring, eyebrows furrowed that made the wrinkles in her face become more prominent.

“What happened, Ted?” Elisabet speaks with barely contained rage.

“Elisabet? You, you’re alive?” The man staggers a step backwards, falling back onto the raised bedding in shock. “How are you alive?” He asks in a much quieter voice.

“I made it to one of the abandoned facilities and sealed it before part of the swarm overran me. I tried to get in contact with everyone at GAIA Prime but the only thing I got was your message. What the hell happened?” Elisabet shouts.

“I can-Lis, I can explain.” He raises his arms, palms up and fingers splayed open as he tries to placate the woman.

“They’re dead, aren’t they Ted? You overrode GAIA’s core and murdered them.” Elisabet accuses.

“You don’t honestly believe I’m capable of murder, do you?” Ted nervously chuckled. He stands up and starts to pace in front of the holo-base, his posture curled and defensive.

“You are responsible for the deaths of billions of people!” Elisabet’s voice is raised. “What’s a few more on your hands?”

“It was a glitch! A mistake in the code I didn’t write.” The man fires back angrily. He steps directly in front of the holo-base and points a finger at Elisabet. His back is straight, standing at his full height and closer to the hologram than before. The redhead in the hologram isn’t even fazed.

“Your precious war machines were hacked, Ted. There’s no one left to lie to.” Elisabet responds darkly. That wipes any confidence Ted had. His posture shifts again, shoulders sagging and he turns away from the holo-base, pacing back and forth again.

“I-I didn’t have a choice, you have to, to understand. I mean-” Ted starts to explain.

“There is always a choice!” The woman shouts. “You chose to murder the Alphas, my friends. And for what? To what end?” Elisabet demands. The man stops pacing, places his hands on his head, and grips his hair as he turns and collapses once again on the raised bedding. Ted leans back against it before shifting to sit forward. His hands slide from his hair to his face before dropping into his lap.

“I couldn’t let them repeat our mistakes, Lis! The next generation to come will have a fresh start, a new world to start it in.” Ted sounds like he’s clinging desperately to his own reasoning. As if he’s talked himself in and out of it too many times to count.

“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Dr. Sobeck’s voice is dangerously quiet. The older woman’s face is twisting into an array of emotions. Ted sets his elbows on his knees as he stares back at her.

“There’s, there’s nothing you can do about it, Lis. I purged Apollo completely from every system. There’s no going back.” He states plaintively. There’s another long moment in the recording, Ted and Elisabet standing off. An immovable object meeting an unstoppable force.

“We’ll see about that.” Elisabet finally speaks. Her voice is calm, set and determined. Her hologram flickers away as Ted leans back again, his head tilted at an uncomfortable angle as it rests against the back of the strange bedding. After a long moment, Ted straightens and looks to the hologram pile of logs he has next to him and he swipes his hand at them, scattering the copies of delicate pieces of machinery across the floor. He stands, turns around and kicks the bottom of the backed bedding with a wordless shout of rage.

“I’m screwed, completely fu-” The recording ends abruptly in the middle of Ted’s screaming and Aloy blinks, surprised by the sudden darkness. She stares at the pile of mostly encrypted data logs, looking at them but not seeing as her mind whirled at what she had witnessed.

“Elisabet survived leaving GAIA Prime.” Aloy feels emotion bubbling in her stomach, a pressure like a dead strider collapsing on her chest making it hard to breathe. “She survived.” She whispers. Tears are forming in her eyes and she doesn’t know if it’s out of relief or sorrow. They start cascading down her cheeks and she lets them fall, lets the conflicting emotions wash over her for several long breaths. When she no longer feels how overwhelming it all is, she raises her hand and brushes her palm across her cheeks. Taking a deep breath, the redhead looks around the bunker again.

The logs that Ted had hit across the floor had been put back up on the raised cushion, signaling that Ted had spent at least some time here after that recording. It’s possible that the encrypted logs are more messages between Ted and Elisabet, or maybe even plans on how to stop Elisabet if Ted was willing to risk his life and leave the bunker. Elisabet’s last words on the recording run through Aloy’s mind, ‘we’ll see about that’.

“She wasn’t just angry,” The redhead murmurs to herself. “She was, determined. It sounded like Elisabet was gathering information, she had a plan when she reached out to Ted. GAIA was active when she left that message for me in the cradle facility so Elisabet must have succeeded. Otherwise, otherwise I wouldn’t even be here.” Aloy comes to the realization as she says it. She steps around the raised bedding, eyes glancing around the ancient space, looking for any stray logs, anything she may have missed.

“But did Ted leave this place? Did he manage to make his way back to GAIA Prime or this ‘auxiliary control’ he mentioned?” Aloy takes a deep breath, frustration taking over the shock, the sadness and relief that Elisabet had continued to live, to fight. “I don’t think I’ll find anything new at GAIA Prime, if there was anything it was destroyed in the blast. But I don’t even know where to start looking for this auxiliary place. Or even if it’s still intact. There’s got to be something here that could point me in the right direction.” She takes another deep breath, calming herself as she prepares to check the small living space one more time before she moves deeper into the bunker.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
